the united states economy is barely, barely moving. now i think voters want to know what's going on. dagen: what's going on with mitt romney, he can't seem to put together a cohesive discussion about the state of the economy that is resonating with voters. you mentioned in the column that he was talking about trade cheaters and energy independence, which seem wholly removed from what is really happening right here right now on the ground for the american people. >> well, the ads that target china as a trade cheater are aimed at voters in northern ohio and around the great lakes where the auto workers are, but obama has been running his own ads hitting china, so i think they kind of neutralize one another. we had a report this morning that durable goods orders have dropped the most since january 09. orders for motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts dropped 11% in august. whatever obama did to bail out the auto industry, those people working in the industries in the northern ohio are the ones affected by a figure like that. and i don't q